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Hangover hangup: Program urges young men to quit binge drinking

MIAMI BEACH - MARCH 16: Mike Davis (L) and Rocky Lefort from the University of Massachusetts use a funnel to drink beer during spring break on South Beach March 16, 2007 in Miami Beach, Florida. Students from universities and colleges around the country are attending spring break which starts at the end of February and into mid-April. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Photograph by: Joe Raedle
, Getty Images

It was the blackouts that made Kevin realize he needed to change.

Like most men in their early 20s, he socialized and drank to excess on the weekend. It was normal and fun. But when he started blacking out after drinking, he knew he had to stop. “I was waking up at home not knowing how I got there, not knowing what I had said to certain people the next day. It started building huge anxiety and stress.”

Kevin, 25, who asked his last name be withheld to protect his anonymity, had moved to Canada from Australia three years earlier. He quickly developed a reputation as a hard-partying Aussie who drank “like a maniac.” “It was like ‘Oh, here comes the Australian guy.’ I was the comedian sculling the beers at a party.”

Growing in Australia had meant growing up with binge drinking and Kevin’s first experience of intoxication was at age 16. “I got totally obliterated but I thought I had found the best way to live life.” He spent his high school years getting blind drunk with his friends. “All my friends were doing it. Those who didn’t were outsiders or losers.”

Kevin’s heavy drinking had continued into his early 20s. But a year ago, he chanced upon a friend’s Facebook post alluding to Hello Sunday Morning. “I googled it and went ‘Wow, this is what I’ve been looking for for ages’.”

His search had struck Hello Sunday Morning’s website, a place where people publicly pledge to stop drinking for three months or more, and blog about their experience.

Hello Sunday Morning started in Australia in 2009, when 22-year-old Chris Raine decided to take a break from drinking for a year, and blog about it. Titling his blog Hello Sunday Morning, he documented his experiences of life without alcohol and encouraged his friends to join.

The idea caught the attention of drinkers in a way the country’s previous alcohol-awareness campaigns hadn’t, and spread. First across the country, then across the world. More than 20,000 people worldwide have signed up on the site for a break from drinking since Raine’s original postings, according to Jazz Rowland, a spokeswoman for Hello Sunday Morning. The success of the program lies in its non-traditional approach, she says.

“We’re not a bunch of (teetotallers). We believe alcohol can have a role in people’s lives but that role has been convoluted over time. Our aim is for everyone to take three months off booze to re-evaluate the role alcohol plays in their life. How they choose to drink after the three months is totally up to them.”

More than 300 Canadians are currently taking part in a teetotallers, Rowland says, despite next to no promotion in Canada, other than social media. “Canada’s drinking culture is very similar to that of Australia where (Hello Sunday Morning) originated and New Zealand, which followed suit not long after. So we would love for the Canadian government or authorities to come on board.”

The binge drinking habits of Alberta’s youth have already come to the attention of the province’s authorities, who call the practice a priority issue.

A report released last year by Alberta’s chief medical officer of health found binge drinking among Albertans aged 12 to 19 increased from 13 per cent in 2002 to 19 per cent in 2008. The report also cited a 2011 survey showing 35 per cent of Albertans aged 18 to 24 had engaged in binge drinking during the past month, with undergraduate college and university students most likely to report binge drinking.

“The significant costs of alcohol misuse make it a priority issue, particularly considering the number of young Albertans engaging in binge drinking, which is a harmful pattern of alcohol consumption,” the report said.

The report said over the long term adolescents who binge drink risk brain damage, while early alcohol use can also increase the risk of employment problems, delinquency, violence, school failure and substance abuse.

Current best practices support actions promoting a culture of moderation, implementing brief interventions for at-risk individuals, developing municipal and community partnerships to promote sensible drinking and increasing alcohol taxation, the report said. In the meantime, independent health authorities in Canada have picked up on Hello Sunday Morning’s unique approach, and are looking for ways to promote it.

Karen Stead, program assistant with Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy took part in a Hello Sunday Morning after reading about it in Australian media. Stead and her co-workers at the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy are interested in the program because it encourages people to consider the reasons behind their drinking.

“Alcohol has become such an accepted part of our society that few people consider why they are drinking. When I completed my HSM I realized that I didn’t always want the drink but having a wine glass in my hand was almost a social environment security blanket.

“Drinking has become so habitual for people that we no longer think about if we actually want a drink — someone offers you a drink, you say yes. HSM helps participants learn self-control and motivates and encourages with the stories of others in the HSM online community.”

Any country with a drinking culture has a place for Hello Sunday Morning, including Canada, Stead says.

“Hopefully as more people become involved with initiatives such as HSM we will see a decline in online crazes such as Neknominate (an online drinking game where friends nominate each other to quickly drink alcohol and upload the footage).”

Dan Reist, assistant director for the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C., said Hello Sunday Morning encouraged self-reflection, which was a refreshing change from the typical marketing around alcohol. “Most public messaging about alcohol is either the industry promoting a variety of positive images, or the health sector engaging in social marketing by emphasizing the potential negative consequences.”

Reist did not believe Hello Sunday Morning was necessarily a solution to problem drinking, but said humanizing of the issue and promoting reflection rather than evangelically selling a particular behavior pattern was appealing.

As for Kevin, within days of discovering Hello Sunday Morning’s website, he has signed up for a three month break. “It went well and within weeks I felt amazing, but within two months I started social drinking again. I thought ‘you’re fine now, you can drink’.”

The break had helped, but a boozy trip to Europe sent him on another downward spiral, so he signed up for another go. The second one was less successful, and experiencing depression and anxiety in December, he committed himself to 12 months without alcohol. At first, stripping alcohol from his life made him feel he was missing out. He continued to socialize, but had to learn to go out on the town with his friends without alcoholic stimulation.

“Basically you have to fake it ’til you make it. I had to learn to dance like an idiot sober.”

He found himself leaving bars and clubs earlier than his friends, instead of continuing on into the early hours like usual. “There’s definitely a tipping point on a night out — you kind of watch the descent into madness. Everyone else is no longer there.”

Kevin questions whether he will return to any form of drinking after his 12 month break finishes in December. “My feeling is that I won’t. I’m learning that alcohol isn’t as normalized as I thought it was. To live a happy life, you don’t have to drink. We’re all taking this pill to make us happy but essentially, after awhile, it does the opposite.”

Finding a community and realizing there were many people living happy, alcohol-free lives had been a “huge awakening”. “The booze brain was lying to me. It was saying ‘you are the only person who can’t drink, your life is ruined now you can’t drink’. It’s great to get over that.”

Kevin has seen Hello Sunday Morning grow in popularity since he joined. “Americans are picking it up. It’s not in the public eye here but I can see huge benefit for it in Canada. People do binge drink — they’re living for the booze and the binge. “A three month break is the perfect opportunity to pause to see the value of alcohol in your life.”

MIAMI BEACH - MARCH 16: Mike Davis (L) and Rocky Lefort from the University of Massachusetts use a funnel to drink beer during spring break on South Beach March 16, 2007 in Miami Beach, Florida. Students from universities and colleges around the country are attending spring break which starts at the end of February and into mid-April. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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